A formal analysis of the 'Chuenchiou' ('Spring and Autumn Classic') (China)

The Chuenchiou is a chronicle of events recorded in the state of Luu from 722 to 479 BCE, traditionally understood to employ subtle words to convey praise and blame. Chapter 1 explores the textual history of the Chuenchiou and provides a critical review of pertinent Western scholarship. Chapter 2 examines the use of date notations and Chapters 3-5 contain a formal categorical analysis of all records of the same type. Records were written in accord with regular rules that governed which types of events could be recorded and in what form. Records of the same type of event were recorded using similar format, and formal rules determined choice of main verb, style of reference to individuals, order in which states were listed in events involving multiple states, and degree of specificity of date notation. Exceptional records are uncommon, although attempts to explain irregularities have been the focus of much of the exegetical tradition associated with the Chuenchiou. The Tzuoo juann contains a set of passages, examined in Chapter 6, that comment directly on the Chuenchiou records. Like other commentarial traditions associated with the Chuenchiou , these passages attempt to explain deviations from the regular form, and provide an alternative to the traditional "praise and blame" interpretation of the Gongyang and Guuliang traditions. Some irregularities are attributed to lack of information and others to scribal error; elsewhere, the Tzuoo suggests that recordkeepers intentionally departed from the regular form to indicate that the event being recorded was itself exceptional, including events that were morally irregular, events that were in some respect ritually deficient, and those that were simply strange or unusual. In the concluding chapter, Chapter 7, I suggest that variations from the standard form may have sometimes been employed as a vehicle for implying value judgments that could not be indicated explicitly in the Chuenchiou records. To this study is appended a complete translation of the Chuenchiou and translations of the 154 direct commentary passages from the Tzuoo juann.